UKCA Training January 2015

From UKCA

This page gives information regarding the UKCA training workshop that was held in January 2015.

For UKCA 2015/16 Training, please see UKCA Training January 2016.

NERC AT 600px.jpg

NERC have provided funds to run a UKCA training course, which will take place on the 5th-9th January 2015 at the Department of Chemistry, University of Cambridge.

Please note that this course has been funded by NERC and therefore NERC funded PhD students and early career researchers will be prioritised when awarding funded places on this course. Once places have been awarded to NERC students and researchers any remaining places will be allocated to other applicants.

This course introduces new users to the UKCA systems and provides practical experience of setting up and running experiments. Users will be led through a series of exercises designed to encourage best practice and scientific exploitation of the ESM.

What is UKCA?

UKCA is a community chemistry-aerosol-climate model based around the Met Office Unified Model (UM), and is developed jointly by the Met Office and the Universities of Cambridge, Leeds, and Oxford. UKCA will be the atmospheric composition module of the joint NERC-Met Office Earth System Model UKESM1 and is used by the Met Office to provide operational 5-day air quality forecasts for the U.K.

Aims of the Workshop

The UKCA Theory and Practice Workshop will take place in the Department of Chemistry at the University of Cambridge designed to give users a good understanding of the theory behind the UKCA code, such as aerosol microphysics, dry and wet deposition, and the chemical mechanisms used, as well as teaching how to use the model on MONSooN and ARCHER. The course will help you become familiar with using the various aspects of the UM that relate directly to UKCA.

After attending this course, you will be proficient with the main components of the UKCA model, and be confident in adapting it for your own purposes.

Aspects of the model that will be covered include:

  • Adding new species and reactions
  • Changing and adding emissions
  • Managing output
  • Adding new diagnostics
  • Using different configurations of the aerosol scheme
  • Prerequisites

You should have some experience in using the UM and the FCM system that is used to manage the model’s code base. If you do not have any UM or FCM experience you should ideally attend the UM training course organised by NCAS-CMS.

How to Apply

There are 20 fully funded places available, with priority given to NERC-funded students and PDRAs, although applications are welcome from any researchers interested in using the UKCA model. Accommodation and reasonable travel expenses will be provided. For more information, please contact Luke Abraham.

If you interested in attending the course please complete the Application Form. Applications will close at 3pm on Friday November 28.

Applications are now closed.

Registration

Registration is in the West Foyer of the Department of Chemistry, University of Cambridge. This is the main entrance to the Department, and can be accessed via the main car park from the Lensfield Road entrance.

Registration opens at 9am on the 5th January 2015, and closes at 9.45am.

Schedule

All talks will take place in the Todd-Hamied room in the Department of Chemistry which is off the right-hand side of the foyer. Practicals will take place in the G30 computer room, which is across the foyer from the Todd-Hamied.

Time Monday 5th January Tuesday 6th January Wednesday 7th January Thursday 8th January Friday 9th January
9am Registration Pdficon small.png Tracer Transport Info circle.png
Nigel Wood
Cylinder.gif
Pdficon small.png Chemical Solvers Info circle.png
Oliver Wild
Newton's Method
Pdficon small.png Earth-System Modelling Info circle.png
Fiona O'Connor
Pdficon small.png Wet Scavenging Info circle.png
Zak Kipling
9.45 Pdficon small.png Welcome Info circle.png
Luke Abraham
Break Break Break Break
10am Pdficon small.png Chemistry Schemes Info circle.png
Alex Archibald
Pdficon small.png Boundary Layer Processes Info circle.png
Adrian Lock
Pdficon small.png Dry Deposition Info circle.png
David Stevenson
Pdficon small.png Earth-System Modelling Info circle.png
Gerd Folberth
Pdficon small.png ESM Assessment Info circle.png
Dominic Spracklen
10.45 Tea/Coffee Tea/Coffee Tea/Coffee Tea/Coffee Tea/Coffee
11.15 Pdficon small.png GLOMAP-mode Info circle.png
Graham Mann
Pdficon small.png Emissions Info circle.png
Carlos Ordonez
Student Presentations Pdficon small.png RADAER Info circle.png
Nicolas Bellouin
Pdficon small.png ACTIVATE Info circle.png
Zak Kipling
12noon Lunch Lunch Lunch
12.45-1.30: Group Photo
Lunch Lunch
1pm Practicals Practicals Practicals Practicals Practicals
2pm
3pm Tea/Coffee
in Foyer
Tea/Coffee
in Foyer
Tea/Coffee
in Foyer
Tea/Coffee
in Foyer
Tea/Coffee
in Foyer
3.30 Practicals Practicals Practicals Practicals Close
4pm
5pm
5.30pm Close Close Close Close
5.30-7.00pm Dinner in Homerton Dinner in Homerton Dinner in Homerton 6.30pm onwards
Workshop Drinks reception and Dinner

Required information

There is some information that attendees must provide to ensure that they are able to do the practicals. Without this information attendees may not be able to complete the course.

  • Dietary Requirements are required to ensure that the food is ordered correctly.

To register on the Cambridge systems to use the computer room, the following information is required:

  • Forenames:
  • Surname:
  • Gender:
  • Have you previously been a member of the University of Cambridge? (YES/NO)
  • If YES please provide your CRSID:

To enable attendees to run the UKCA practicals, a personal PUMA account is required.

  • Do you have a PUMA account? (YES/NO)
  • If YES please provide your username:

To register for a PUMA account, please go here: http://cms.ncas.ac.uk/wiki/PumaService.

If you have used the UM under FCM (Flexible Configuration Management) before, or have attended a UM training course provided by NCAS-CMS, then attendees should be familiar with how the UM/UKCA source-code is managed. If they are not familiar then they must complete the UM FCM training prior to attending the course. This can be done in your own time and will take a few hours.

If an attendee does not have an ARCHER account to do this, then they should register for one. Contact Luke Abraham as soon as possible if this is required.

  • Do you have FCM experience? (YES/NO)
  • If NO do you have an ARCHER account? (YES/NO)
  • If YES please provide your username:
  • If YES please also provide your ARCHER group (e.g. n02-chem etc.):

During the course practicals training accounts will be used on ARCHER.

Information should be sent to Luke Abraham.

PUMA

You will need a personal PUMA account to do the practical elements of the course. If you do not have one, you can register for one here:

http://cms.ncas.ac.uk/wiki/PumaService

Practicals

The practical element of the course will follow the UKCA Chemistry and Aerosol Tutorials available on this wiki. Before you go through these you will need to have done some prerequisites.

Note that for the practical element of the course training accounts (rather than personal accounts) will be used on ARCHER. A personal PUMA account is still required.

Please see the page here on how to log in and set up your accounts on the Cambridge workstations and ARCHER.

Accommodation, Breakfast, and Evening Meals

Accommodation, breakfast, and evening meals will be in Homerton College, Cambridge. Maps giving directions from Cambridge Station to the College, from the College to the Department of Chemistry, and from the Department to the Station are below. It is a short walk between all three locations.

Check-in is available from 2pm, and keys should be collected from the Porter's Lodge (see map below).

Evening meals are taken through the serving counter of the Great Hall from 5.30pm-7pm on Monday, Tuesday, and Wednesday. On Thursday there will be pre-dinner drinks in the Combination Room followed by dinner at 7.30pm in the Drawing Room.

Attendees arriving on Sunday will need to go elsewhere for dinner and then claim this back (up to the value of £20) along with their travel expenses.

All attendees will have accommodation arranged for them for the Sunday evening to the Friday morning inclusive (unless informed otherwise). Guest speakers will have had their night's accommodation arranged for them as per their requirements.

Please note that only single accommodation is available in Homerton College.

Lunches

Lunches will be provided in the Department of Chemistry.

Travel

It is probably easiest to travel by train, as both the Department of Chemistry and Homerton College are close to the railway station. Please pay for your tickets in advance, and then claim forms will be provided when you arrive. If your ticket will be over £120 please inform Luke Abraham.

Please inform me as soon as possible if you will be coming by car. You should also note that for this mode of transport, the amount that can be reimbursed is capped at the cost of an off-peak or super off-peak (where applicable) standard class train ticket, or 45p/mile, whichever is lower. In almost all cases, the rail cost is significantly lower.

Photography

There will be a group photo taken during the Wednesday lunch, which will be used on the UKCA website and will be tweeted with the hashtag #NERCAdvancedTraining (at the request of NERC). Also, photographs may be taken during the talks for use on the UKCA website and for the Departmental magazine Chem@Cam.

Presentations

All attendees have been asked to prepare a 1-slide/2-minute talk. These will make up the Student Presentations 11.15am slot on Wednesday.

These should be in either Microsoft PowerPoint or Adobe PDF format. They will need to be provided to Luke Abraham before Wednesday 7th January so that they can be combined into a single file (for ease of use on the day).

Feedback

It is important to get attendee feedback, as this will help with the development of the course in the future. Please can all attendees fill in the feedback form, which can be found here:

Please give as much detail as possible.

Maps